Will Smith has said that he didn’t enjoy Quincy Jones’ first rendition of the Fresh Prince of Bel Air theme tune, which inspired him to create the version that is known to everyone today. On Wednesday, June 5, Smith and his co-star Martin Lawrence from the Bad Boys dropped by Hot 97 to promote their new movie. The Fresh Prince talked about how he and DJ Jazzy Jeff came up with the show’s famous theme tune.
Peter Rosenberg questioned Smith about the music, and he said, “So Quincy Jones was the producer of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air?” He was my mentor. Quincy had recorded a song for Fresh Prince’s theme. In addition, Quincy completed Sanford and Son; you are unaware of a thousand other things that Quincy accomplished. Thus, Quincy begins to play The Fresh Prince’s theme song. It was so old-fashioned [as in, mimicking a theme from a sitcom]. After listening, I thought, “Ohh… wow… yeah.”
The Oscar winner claimed that he then asked his close friend and partner DJ Jazzy Jeff for guidance on handling the embarrassing circumstance. “While Jeff was in the hotel, I mentioned to him that Quincy had played the theme tune. It’s not good at all, dude,” he went on. “Just tell him, man, he’ll understand,” Jeff said. I said to myself, “There’s no way I’m going to tell Quincy Jones.” Man, I just can’t do it. Quincy is more knowledgeable than I am.
Smith claimed that a few hours later, Jazzy Jeff played him a different beat that he had composed especially for the performance, and the rest is history. Yes, it does feel a little bit better, I thought. “Yo, just write something,” Jeff said, elaborating. So that evening in the hotel room with Jeff, I wrote the theme song. After we recorded his four-track, he said to us, “Just play it for Quincy.” And I thought, “Uhhhh.”
“I played it for Quincy, who sat there and listened while I shook and perspired.” “Well, that’s better than that bullshit I did,” he said. Quincy edited off the second verse from the entire album we recorded, and that ended up becoming the theme song.
And the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air might have had a very different appearance. De La Soul disclosed earlier this year that they were considered to star in the popular sitcom before Will Smith.
During an episode of the group’s Apple Music show Art Official Intelligence Radio with De La Soul, Posdnuos claimed, “A lot of people don’t know, yo, the Fresh Prince thing was offered to us.” “They want us to do this?” he continued. Russell Simmons said, “Hey, you guys should give it a shot.” Step outside. We said, “Nah.” We also perform rap music. To be honest, we were afraid. We were really afraid.
I might have been Will Smith, too. Jada and I may have been married. “Damn,” he said in jest. Then, as a guest on the program, Queen Latifah lessened the impact by saying, “You definitely could have.” Still, I believe you’re doing well where you are now. You seem excellent to me.
